Paving the Way to Zero Hunger: A savings and nutrition group that empowers local farmers

[Music] monsie is in the southern province of Zambia [Music] agriculture fuels this economy [Music] through the livelihood of its people is dependent on Mother Nature's rain-fed crops for their survival [Music] uh you must be Imelda Imelda nice to meet you [Music] [Music] living in this region of drought and adverse weather conditions has meant Decades of food insecurity for a community of farmers like Imelda hichimbola that situation changed in 2017 when she joined the local farmers Club aided by the United Nations world food program this support gave her tools to diversify crops reduce post-harvest losses and improve her household income how much land do you have here to plant corn ER imelda's Farm is five hectares that's 12 acres and she grows white and orange Maize cow peas peanuts and sunflowers and all of it planted by hand maintained by hand harvested by hand and you're looking at the hands Imelda is one of the farmers in a world food program supported Co-op called savings for Change and best of all it's a woman-owned and woman-led business so they come in every month they save whatever they have then they borrow from the same amount for this particular group the interest rate is 20 per month and based on that they're able to grow their money so I'm sure a lot of people hear the 20 figure but essentially they're paying that to themselves that will later be dispersed to savings that's the co-op nature of it being successful so I assume they don't mind paying 20 they don't mind paying 20 actually they decided to make the 20 interest six six seven one of the women was actually borrowing a small amount of money so she could go into the town and get goats and chickens which then can grow in milk eggs Etc right yes and once they grocery part of that as well yeah and that gives them the money to pay it back with the interest they're able to grow that money yeah substantially it's part of also Financial education for them as well as once they've understood the intricacies of borrowing and lending we actually link them up to private financial institutions who are able to actually lend them money so that they grow whatever they have Imelda built her house that way so it's a savings and loan it's a financial literacy program and it makes the community grow and be more prosperous yes they grow their income they're able to ensure that they make informed decisions about what they eat making sure that their families have nutritious meals at the end of the day so it's it's a whole cycle [Music] [Applause] [Music] so the unwfp taught these women who are in their nutrition group how to take foods like cow peas a bean cook them mash them and turn them into a superfood like these little sausages this is the future of food and nutrition it doesn't come from cell-based meat it comes from right here a tiny little village in Zambia these are small Solutions pilot programs in a Far Away part of the world that can have real Global impact she's making scones here with these farm fresh eggs she buys the the salt and the brown sugar and the other things that she needs to make them and then they're put into a mold you didn't hit anyone oh thank you for lumba it's extremely extremely moist it's crispy on the outside it's not too sweet but you just get a little bit of sweetness from that brown sugar this is awesome and she sells them at soccer games and thanks to the savings group she's able to grow this business [Music] we've gotten to know Imelda she's a pretty impressive lady but after sharing a little bit of food with her family you might be surprised to know that she's a single mom so you can imagine how important those wfp programs are not just for her but for her children her grandchild and the community at large here it's delicious that's a global game changer foreign [Applause]

Channel: Andrew Zimmern

Views: 1,900

Keywords: andrew, zimmern, Cooking, Culinary, Literacy, Kitchen, instructions, How, to, Yum, delicious, favorite, eating, meal, Travel, Channel, family, azcooks

Id: gphIfpI-xZk

Length: 6min 19sec (379 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 03 2023